Filling machine



Oct; 11, 1932. G; .J, MEYF;R' 1,882,225

' FILLING MACHINE I Filed y 192'7v 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 fi m i g 59 G5 12 Oct.- 11, 1932.

G, J. MEYER FILLING MACHINE Filed y 1927 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 I N VEN TOR.

WITNESSES V. Y B

w. 5mm? A TTORNE Y.

Patented Oct. 11, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GEORGE J. MEYER, F MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR 'IO GEO. J. MEYER HANU- FACTURING COMPANY, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, A CORPORATION OF W'IB- CONSIN FILLING MACHINE Application filed Kay 7,

.one at a time as they successively come into operative position.

A further object is to provide a capping mechanism of this charactcr in which the capping devices are each provided with a segment having a rollingcontact with an actuating element.

A further object is to provide a capping mechanism including spring means for determining the proper crowning pressure and so arranged as to obtain a crowning pressure of substantially the same value for bottles which are longer or shorter than normal.

A further object is to provide a bottle filling mechanism including siphons which have their inlet ends extending into receptacles movable therewith for insuring full siphons at all times, notwithstanding the existence of slight leaks orthe elevation of the siphon above the liquid level in the supply tank.

A further object of the invention is to pro- .vide a bottle filling and capping machine including simple but effective means for accurately locating thenecks of the bottles in operative position.

A further object is to provide a bottle filling and capping machine having bottle feeding means including a yieldable side wall to prevent'damage to the machine by jamming of bottles. i

A further object is toprovide a bottle fillingand capping machine including a rotatable' bottle-feeding star wheel and a plu- 1927. Serial No. 189,548.

rality of overlapping spring fingers for-urging the bottles into the notches of the rotating star wheel.

The invention further consists in the several features'hereinafter set forth and more particularly defined by the annexed claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a filling and capping machine embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof, parts being broken away, and parts being shown in section, especially along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional elevation of tfihe machine taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 4 is a detail sectional elevation of one of the bottle feeding star wheels and its drive; 7

Fig. 5 is a perspective detail view of a modified form of bottle neck holder;

Fig. 6 is a detail sectional elevation. showing the mounting of the bottle neck holder of (Fig. 5 and its relation to the filling siphon, an

Fig. 7 is a detail sectional elevation of the bottle neck holder shown in Fig. 2.

In these drawings, the numeral 10 designates a rectangular marginally flanged base plate which is supported from the floor on vertically adjustable jack pedestals 11. A rectangular platform 12 provided with depending marginal flanges 13 is supported above the base plate 10 in fixed position by pillars 14. ,A terraced channel 15 is formed in the upper surface of the platform 12 near and parallel to one edge to receive and guide therein the upper flight of a'bottle conveyor chain 16, the upper surface of which is substantially flush with'the upper surface of the piatform. The conveyor chain 16 may extend yond opposite ends "of the platform 12 any desired dlst'ance, and in the present instance the chain passes over sprocketsv 17 which are rotatably mounted in outrigger brackets 18 secured to the platform at the ends of the chain-receiving channel 15. The lower flight of the chain may be supported in a channel plate 15 suspended below the platform 12, v

as seen in Fig. 3. The upper flight of the bottle conveyor chain 16 travels from left to right, as viewed in Fig. 1, the bottles 19 being placed on the chain at the left end and removed therefrom at the right end. The

sprocket 17 .at the discharge end of the chain 24 which carries at its upper en portion a rotary circular table 25 and a superposed rotary liquid or syrup tank 26. The rotary circular table 25 has an axial thrust bearing on the upper end of the hollow column 23 and occupies a large circular opening in the plat-' form 12, the u per surface of the table being substantially ush with the upper surface of the platform. The rotary table 25 has secured thereto a subjacent coaxial ring gear 27' which meshes with a pinion 28 (seen in Fi 3) secured to a vertical shaft 29 'ournafied in a bearing bracket 30 mounted on the base plate 10. The vertical shaft 29 car.- ries a bevel gear 31 meshing with a bevel pinion 32 keyed at one end of a horizontal shaft 33, which is also journalled in the hearing bracket 30. The other end ofthe horizontal shaft 33 carries a gear wheel 34 which meshes with a laterally adjacent pinion 35 secured to one end of a horizontal shaft 36 jour-' nalled in bearing brackets 37, the other end of the shaft 36 carrying a pulley 38 which is driven by any suitable source of power, such as an electric motor. Through the abovedescribed gearing the rotary table 25 and the superposed rotary liquid' tank 26 are given a slow continuous rotation in the same direction and at the same rate of travel.

The liquid or syrup is conducted to the ro-' tary tank 26 through a pipe 39 having a swivel connection 40 permitting the relative rotation of the tank and pipe, and a float-controlled .valve 41 is provided in the pipe by means of which the liquid in the tank is maintained at a pre-determined level. A plurality of bottle-filling siphons 42 are disposed radially about the rotary tank 26 and have their inner and longer legs within the tank. The outer and shorter leg of each siphon is provided with a depending discharge tube or nozzle 43 having aside discharge opening 44 near its lower end capable of being covered by a valve sleeve .45, slidably mounted on the discharge tube and carrying a weight collar 46 at its upper end. Each siphon 42 is supported and guided for vertical movement on arod 47 slidably extending through an annular flange 48 surrounding the tank 26.near its upper end, and also slidably extending through a guide-bushing 49 passing through the rotary table 25. The lower end of each red 47 is carr1ed at the free end of a lever 50 pivotally mounted on the under side 7 of the rotary table 25. The free end of each lever 50 carries a roller 51 which is adapted to travel over a fixed cam 52 mounted on theso that during the roller of each or if the inner leg of the siphon rises above the level of the liquid inthe tank.

The lower portion of the'rotary syrup tank 26 carries a projectin which may be integra with the tank, as shown, if desired, and this flange is provided with peripheral bottle-receiving notches 55 to form-a star wheel each notch being centered with the axis of one of the superposed siphon discharge tubes 43. An annular bot annular flange 54- tle neck holder 56 surrounds the upper portion of the rotary tank 26 and has peri heral notches .57 to accurately locate the ottles with respect to the siphons, the bottleneck.

holder being vertically adjustably attached to the tank to accommodate different heights of bottles. The flange 48carries a depending cylindrical skirt 48' surrounding the tank 26 and having vertically extending slots 49' formed therein. The neck holder 56 includes a cylindrical flanged portion which fits about the skirt 48 for vertical sliding movement therealong and is releasably clamped thereto by bolts 50 passing through the slots 49.

' In' the modified form of the invention shown in Fig. 5-the bottle neck holder comprises a series of flanged arcuate segments 56' which are secured about the tank and;

which carry. pivotally mounted neck-engaging forked levers or yokes 57 spring urged upwardly to normal position. In the absence of bottles below the siphons the forked levers yield downwardly upon the descent of the weighted valve sleeves 45, thereby avoiding exposure of the siphon discharge openings 44. I

For the purpose of transferring-bottles from the bottle conveyor chain 16 to the rotary-filling table 25, a star wheel 58 is placed above the table between the conveyor chain and filling table and is provided with peripheral bottle-receiving notches 59. The star wheel is secured to the upper end of a vertical shaft .60 journaHed in a bearing 61 and carrying a sprocket 62aat its lower end,

the sprocket being driven by pins 63 depending from the rotary filling table 25, so that the table and star wheel are co-ordinated in rotation. The star wheel is partially surrounded by a series of laterally-acting arcuate spring fingers 64 mounted on the inner face of an arcuate supporting plate 65 and engaging the bottles to urge them into the notches 59 of the star wheel. The free end of each finger 64 projects in the direction of rotation of the star wheel 58 and overlaps the fixed end of the next spring finger.

Guide walls 66 are placed on opposite sides of the incoming portion of the bottle convey or chain 16, and those portions of the guide walls adjacent the star wheel 58 are disposed angularly to direct the bottles into the star wheel. A deflector block 67, which forms a continuation of the outer guide wall 66 adjacent the star wheel, is mounted on a horizontally movable hinge plate 68 springurged inwardly so that the deflector block may yield outwardly under abnormal pres sure to the dotted line position of Fig. 1, 29 thereby. constituting a safety gate which will prevent any jamming of bottles at the star wheel. The bottles entering from the'star wheel onto the rotary filling table and into the star wheel notches 55 are further guided by. a finger 69 which insures retention of the bottles on the table at the time of leaving the star wheel.

A hollow column 70 is fixedly secured to the upper face of the base plate 10 and supports therein in splined relation for longitudinal sliding movement a vertical shaftlike pillar 71, the pillar having a threaded lower end portion 72 on which is screwed a hand wheel 73- whereby the pillar may be adjusted in elevation. A rotary table 74 surrounds and is journalled on an intermediate portion of the pillar 71, and is carried in axial thrust relation on the upper end of the column 70 through an interposed antifriction bearing 7 5. The rotary table 74 is provided with a surrounding gear 76 mesh-, ing with the ring gear 27 of the rotary filling table 25, so that these tables are co-ordinat'ed in rotation. The upper face of the table 74 carries a resilient bottle-receiving disk 74' which is substantially flush with the upper surface of the platform 12, there being a circular opening in the platform 12 slightly larger than the table to permit the free r0- tation of the table. A central sleeve 77 forming part of the table 74 projects upwardly above the disk 74; to surround the stationary pillar 71 on which it is journalled, the sleeve having a keyed connection with the lower portion of a capping head turret 78 which also has a bearing on the upper end portion of the stationary pillar 71. A bottle-receiving star wheel 77' is also keyed on the sleeve 77 in adjustable elevation above the table 7 4.

The capping head turret carries a concentrio circular group of. vertically movable,

spring-mounted capping heads or plungers 79 which are supplied with caps or crowns-i (15 through a tube 80 connected to a hopper In the present instance, the upper end of each capping or crownnig head 79 is provided with an arcuate segment 82, the segments for the several capping heads being arranged in a concentric circular group about the axis of the turret 78, as seen in Fig. 1. A lever 83 is disposed above the capping head turret with a portion immediately above the capping station and carries thereon a conical roller 84 which rolls on the plane horizontal upper surface of the segments 82. At its forward portion the lever 83 is guided for vertical movement in a guide fork 83', and at its rear end the lever is pivotally secured to one arm of a bell crank 85 which is pivotallv mounted intermediate its ends on a standard 86 bolted to the platform 12. The endof the bell crank 85 pivotally carrying the lever 83 normally engages the upper end of an abutment 87 on the standard 86. A coil spring 88 adjusted to a suitable compression urges the other end of the bell crank 85 upwardly, so as to normally maintain the bell crank in engagement with the abutment 87. The free end of the lever 83 has pivotally secured thereto a depending reach rod 89, the lower end of which passes through the platform 12 and is guided for substantially vertical movement by its pivotal connection with the free end of a laterally-extending link .90 having its other end pivotally secured to the platform 12. lower end mounted on a crank pin 92 on the gear wheel 34 and has its upper end pivotally secured to the lower .end of the reach rod 89 at its pivotal junction with the free end of the link 90. By means of the above connection, the rotation of the gear wheel 34 causes the vertical reciprocation of the reach rod 89, which in turn rocks the lever 83 carrying the roller 84. On the downward movement of the reach rod 89, the roller 84 will depress the subjacent capping head segment 82 for effecting the capping operation.

In order to effect the transfer of filled bottles from the filling table 25 onto the capping table 74, a star wheel 93 is provided as seen in Fig. 1. The star wheel is secured to the upper end of a vertical shaft 94 which is driven in the proper direction, in the same manner as the transfer star wheel 59. For guiding the bottles in this transfer adjustably mounted spring guide fingers 95 are pr(= vided, one of which serves to laterally engage the transferring bottles for urging them into the notches of the star wheel. To guide the bottles in their discharge from the capping table to the conveyor chain 16, spaced guide plates 96 are placed to form a bottle-receiving channel between them, as seen in Fig. 1, theguide plates 96 being preferably extended along the sides of the chain. The conveyor A connecting rod 91 has its chain driving sprocket 22 is connected by a transmission chain 97 to table 25 and is so timed that 77 of the table in or In operation, incoming-empty bottles are placed on the loading end of the conveyor .chain and are carried along the chain until they are deflected laterally into the star wheel 59 by the spring-mounted deflector block 67, which may yield if necessary should the bottles become'jammed at this location. The bottles are thereupon carried-around with the rotating star wheel 59 into the notches of which the bottles are urged by the Several spring fingers 64. The rotating star wheel 59.slides the bottles onto the rotary filling the bottles are introduced into the notches 55 of the star wheel-forming flange 54 carried by the rotary. liquid tank 26, the bottles being retained in the notches 55 during their." initial movement by the spring finger. 69. At the point of entry of the bottles onto the rotary filling table, the superposed siphons 42 are held ele-- vated by the stationary cam 52- on which ride the rollers 51 of the siphon-supporting guide rods 47. As the table 25 rotates, the rollers 51 leave the stationary cam 52, thereby permitting the discharge tubes 43 of the siphons to descend into the bottles which have their necks properly located for this purpose by the notched neck-holder 56 or'the pivoted yokes 57 of Fig. 51 When the discharge tube 43 of each siphon enters the bottle below, the .weight 46 of the valve sleeve 45 stops at the bottle neck in order toexpose the discharge opening 44 in the discharge tube as the discharge 'tube'descends' further into the bottle. Liquid or syrup from the rotary tank 26 is then introduced into the bottles by the siphons which are retained in the bottles for a time during the revolution of the rotary table 25. Before the bottles reach the star wheel 93, the siphons are withdrawn from the bottles by the riding of their rollers 51 upon the stationary cam 52, and the bottles in their further'movement are transferred by the star wheel 93 onto the rotary capping table 74, the spring-guide fingers 95 insuring the proper travel of the bottles at this stage.

When the bottles pass onto the rotary capping table they enter the notches of the star wheel 77 carried b the upstanding sleeve bottles with respect to the superposed capping heads 79. As each capping head 79 passesunder the coni a1 roller 84 of the lever '83, the lever is pu ed downwardly by its takes place while the bottle is moving with,

the slowly rotating table 74 and during this interval the conical roller 84 rolls "over the arcuate segment 82 on the capping head as the lever '83 is. first depressed and then eleer to properly locate the vided to properly vated, the capping head bein in its lowest position when the roller is at t e central portion of the segment. During the next depression of the lever 83, the roller is acting on the succeedin arcuate segment which comes head meet with unusual resistance, the inner,

end of the lever 83 will yield-0n its fulcrum andrise above the abutment 87. thereby avoiding excessive crowning pressure. The spring 88 is compressed to an extent several times greater than the maximum spring action to 55 obtain the initial crowning pressure, so that any extra length of bottles. will only increase this pressure a small amount. For example: if the spring required a pressure of 50 pounds to move it one inch, it would have to be compressed eight inches to obtain an initial pressure of 400 pounds, and any additional compression would then be at the ratio of 50 pounds per inch. With this capping arrangement the capping pressure varies negligibly with longer and shorter bottles.

The siphon shown difl'ers from the usual siphon in that the inner end lifts out of the liquid in the tank and the outer end is valved for shutting ofi the liquid. ceptacle 53 holds a small quantity of liquid so as to prevent the losm'of liquid from the siphon in case there should be a .slight leak in the valve. In this 'manner, the outer end of the siphon is always full so that a slight leak at the discharge tube will not cause The cup or re-' trouble, and the siphon is not disturbed by the elevation of the inner end of the siphon above the liquid or syrup in the tank, there'- by rmitting a lesser degree of submergence andionsequently a lesser height of liquid in the tank than has been previously necessary. The neck-holder above the filling table accurately places the bottle necks in filling position, and similar neck-holders maybe pro-- locate the necks of the bottles below the ca ping heads.

In the fillin an described, the ottles pass directly from the filling mechanism to the capping mechanism, without' interruption in their movement, thereby providing smooth and easy movement of the bottles in their passage through the. machine and comes ondingly. smooth and easy operation of the filling and capping mechanisms, These features not only minimize wear and noise but also efiect economies in power consumption, since they inertia ef-' capping machine above fects attending intermittent bottle travel are largely eliminated.

What I claim as new and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. The combination of a bottle carrier adapted to receive bottles thereon in upri ht position, bottle filling means including a iottle entering member and a valve member engageable with the bottlenecks to permit filling, and a downwardly yieldable member laterally engageable with the neck portion of the bottles for locating them in oper-v ative position and adapted to be depressed by said valve member in the absence of a bottle below to prevent operation of said valve member. f

2. The combination of a bottle carrier adapted to receive bottles thereon in upright position, bottle-fillingdevices each including a bottle-entering member and a valve member operatively engageable with a bottle neck to control filling, a support, and a downwardly yieldable member pivotally carried on said support and laterally engageable with the neck portion of a bottle for locating the bottle in operative position, said yieldable member being depressed by said valve member in the absence of a bottle below to prevent operation of said valve member.

In testimony whereof, I afiix my si ature.

GEORGE J. ME R. 

